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The Mysteries of Qurna
By Sonny Stengle
There are eight thousand fellahin, or
peasants, living in Qurna, across the Nile from Luxor, all
massed together in five clusters of houses built on and around
the tombs – eight thousand people living, literally, on the
past!
It was these richly furnished tombs of their
ancestors which attracted them – or their fathers before
them – to Qurna some one hundred years ago. The land around the
site could not support that many people, with most of it
belonging to a handful of wealthy individuals, so their
livelihood depended almost entirely on robbing the tombs.
 My fascination with this mysterious place
began at the age of 8 when I found for the first time the
name of Qurna in a book written by C.W.Ceram. He described a
village built on top of the ancient Theban necropolis. I was
fascinated with people like Howard Carter, Belzoni, Lepsius,
etc. and their findings, their excavations, but besides that,
I wanted to meet these people, not realizing they all died
long ago.
Years later (1988) my wife, my kids and I went
to Egypt for a holiday trip, and there was no doubt that we
would visit Qurna on the West bank of Luxor. When we finally
arrived, we were surprised by the friendliness of all the Saidis
living in Qurna, and we got to know them fairly well by
staying in a house in Qurna ourselves.
 While visiting the
sites we also went to the
Ramesseum, a funeral temple built by Ramses II. It was hot and
fortunately, close by, was a little rest house with a big sign
that read, "Sheikh Hussein Resthouse". When we went to sit
down and refresh ourselves with some water and food, an old man
turned up welcoming us. Nearby I saw a photo on the wall
showing a young boy wearing one of Tutankhamen’s necklaces
around his neck. I had seen that photo in quite a few books
before and asked the old man how he came to have that photo on
the wall of this restaurant. I was surprised when he told me
it shows him as a young boy, as his father was foreman of all
the workers for Howard Carter. His job was always to bring
water to the workers in the Valley of the Kings. And then he
mentioned that he is a member of the Abd el Rassuhl family. Of
course, I had seen that name before during my research prior
to my trip. I remembered seeing this name also in
C.W.Ceram’s book. So this old man, Sheikh Hussein Abd el
Rassuhl, was the last survivor of Carter’s team that
discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen. Howard Carter had asked
him to wear the necklace for a photo as he thought the young
boy Hussein probably looked similar to Tutankhamen at the same
age.
We became good friends over the years and he
told me many stories regarding Qurna, the tombs and the
findings where his family always played an important role. I
knew through my research at the archives of DER SPIEGEL
magazine and others, that the Rassuhl family probably was the
oldest and likely the "most successful"
tomb-robber-dynasty in history. And I realized that it was Sheik
Hussein who
actually stated it, during his re-telling the story of the
finding of the Cache at Deir el Bahari.
In 1870, fragments of funeral papyri turned up
in Cairo offered to foreigners and it was Gaston Maspero,
head of the Service of Antiquities, who heard found out that
21'st Dynasty funerary papyri were available on the
antiquities market. He decided that someone had discovered a royal
tomb somewhere in the vast Theban necropolis across the Nile
from modern Luxor. Suspicion fell on members of the Abd
el-Rassuhl family from the village of Qurna, but, when
questioned, they would admit to nothing and they had to be
released. In 1881 they were arrested again as even more
artifacts out of an unknown tomb appeared on the antiquity
market in Cairo. Finally, after seeing his brothers
arrested and tortured, Mohammed el-Rassuhl, Sheik Hussein’s
grandfather confessed and led Emile Brugsch, Maspero's assistant to the site of the tomb in the cliffs of Deir
el-Bahari. When Brugsch climbed down the entrance shaft of the
tomb, which later was named tomb DB 320, he made a discovery
unlike any other in the history of Egyptology. As his eyes
adjusted to the candle-lit dimness of the roughly hewn
corridors, he found himself confronting the massed
remains of 50 different burials, among them the coffins and
mummies of some of the greatest rulers from ancient
Egypt's glorious past. Stunned by the unprecedented nature of
his find, Brugsch had the tomb rapidly cleared of its
valuable contents and sent the mummies to Cairo for further
study.
Sheikh Hussein Abd el Rassuhl smiled whenever
he told the story, as yes, this tomb was the biggest bank
account the family ever had.
There are many secrets and even a mystery kept
in that mountain called Djebel el Qurn, which Qurna is build
upon…thousands of tombs are still waiting to be discovered.
Strange (or, mystic?) incidents are still
happening. An undecorated tomb in the north part of Qurna (Dra´Abû
el Naga´) was used by a family as a stable and lumber room.
One day, upon removing some rubbish from his cave, the owner
discovered an entrance to a passage descending into the rock.
Each day he dug away a portion of the stones blocking the
doorway, careful that none of the neighbors would find out,
hoping to find innumerable treasures at the other end. He told
his family, but he chose a day when they were away to force
his way through the hole. The following morning his wife
became anxious about his disappearance and went through the
passage in search of her husband. She was in turn followed by
her mother, a cousin, and yet another cousin. When an hour had
passed and no one had returned, two of the relatives who had
gathered at the entrance decided to enter with candles. Three
yards beyond the entrance the passage turned sharply to the
left, then to the left again. Here the candles began to fail,
but a moment later, they came across the second cousin lying
on the floor. They dragged him out, but soon he expired.
Finally they had to call the police and when they arrived with
an antiquity inspector they entered the passage and found that
beyond the spot where the body had been found the passage
turned right, then left again and opened into a hall with four
rough columns. The air was foul, and the candles began to go
out, but they thought they caught a glimpse of the three bodies.
They were unable to reach them, being overcome with nausea. On
their return no one dared enter again, for the general opinion
was that an afrit, an evil spirit, had overpowered the
victims. The following day the passage was blocked up, the
bodies left where they had fallen. The cause of death was
registered (1949) as asphyxia produced by poisonous gases.
Today there is no single remaining sign of that tragedy and as
a now Islamic burial place, nobody is allowed to open it
again.
"Tradition says that on every tomb a spell has
been cast and if you do not know the ‘anti-spell’ there
will be big problems", said Sheikh Hussein. "Not
many know this ‘anti-spell". Sheik Hussein Abd el Rassuhl
was one of those privileged few, and he died in 1997 at the
age of 87. Now his youngest son Nubi Abd el Rassuhl is,
together with his brother Mahmoud, head of the Abd el Rassuhl
family.
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